Morrowind was originally conceived during
development of Daggerfall. It was to be called Tribunal and set in Summerset Isle. It was then redesigned after Daggerfall to use a new SVGA version of the XnGine (later used in Battlespire) and feature the entire province of Morrowind,
not just the subsection of Vvardenfell where the final game
actually takes place. The original story featured all 5 houses
of the Dark Elves, including your ability to join House Indoril
and House Dres. The original design also featured the progressive
expansion of the Blight, cities being destroyed, armies marching,
along with the return of Dagoth-Ur. Overall, it was much closer
to Daggerfall in scope, setup, and gameplay style. We
decided it was simply too much to create and that the technology
was too akin to Daggerfall, so the project was put on
hold in 1997.

With
the completion of Redguard at the end of 1998, it was
clear to us that we needed to return to Morrowind,
and that our audience wanted the grandeur and scope of the
main Elder Scrolls' chapters. It had been several years since
we had developed one of our big RPGs, and technology and gameplay
in the market had grown by leaps and bounds with the arrival
of 3D acceleration and the proliferation of first-person games.
We knew we had to exceed the visual polish of the other games
on the market, and we made it our goal to put The Elder
Scrolls back into the forefront of game innovation.

We
immediately focused the game on the story of Dagoth-Ur's return
and on a much smaller land area than the original design.
We had the goal of creating it all by hand, using similar
techniques that we used on Redguard, which most of the team
had just finished. Both Arena and Daggerfall had been created using algorithms that randomly built the
world's areas. Doing this by hand was an enormous task that
took us close to 100 man-years to create. Two things were
needed to accomplish this.

First, we tripled our staff by hiring many new faces. Morrowind for us was not just about building a game, but building a
new development team. Second, we spent the first full year
of the project creating The Elder Scrolls Construction
Set. It's often said amongst our team that The Construction
Set is the best product we ever made, and it just may
be. This tool made Morrowind possible, not just for
creating it, but playing and modifying it. The file system,
which stores any change to the game in small plug-ins, allowed
us to rebalance the game and really make it fun. The Construction
Set shipped with the PC version of Morrowind and
has spawned thousands of mods and millions of plug-in downloads
-- giving Morrowind never-ending life.

Morrowind also marked our first major foray into the world of console
games, as we also developed it for the Xbox. We saw Xbox as
a great opportunity for us to bring our style of RPG to an
even bigger audience. It also spawned two expansion packs, Bloodmoon and Tribunal. These were released
separately on the PC and put together with the original to
be sold on Xbox as Morrowind: Game of the Year Edition.

The
Emperor sends you to Morrowind to fulfill an ancient prophecy and
become the reincarnation of a long-dead hero. The prophecies are
incomplete and obscure, so to succeed, you must first find the missing
clues. The prophecies also say to beware of a mysterious Morrowind
cult called the Sixth House that worships Dagoth Ur, the immortal
nemesis of Dunmer religion and an ancient enemy of Nerevar. You
are therefore ordered to prepare yourself to face the threat of
the Sixth House and Dagoth Ur.

The Emperor places you under the orders of the head of Imperial
Intelligence in Vvardenfell, Caius Cosades, the Spymaster. Following
the Emperor's orders, the Spymaster sends you to investigate the
background and activities of the Cult of the Nerevarine and the
Sixth House.

You
learn that the Cult of the Nerevarine awaits a prophesied hero called
the Incarnate, a reincarnation of the ancient Dunmer Hero Nerevar
-- and evidence confirms the Emperor's belief that you may be the
object of the prophecies. Also, the Sixth House and Dagoth Ur are
the source of a supernatural blight that threatens to overwhelm
the land of Morrowind and every living thing upon it.

Morrowind's most powerful religion, the Tribunal Temple, denies
the prophecy of the Incarnate, persecuting the Cult of the Nerevarine
as heretics. But you learn of a rebellious Temple faction called
the Dissident Priests who may have the Lost Prophecies you seek.
The Dissident Priests have also discovered that the Temple's immortal
god-heroes -- Vivec, Almalexia, and Sotha Sil -- employ the same
profane magics as Dagoth Ur, and that, grown weaker and weaker in
their battles with Dagoth Ur, the Tribunal can no longer defend
Morrowind from Dagoth Ur and the Blight. The Temple hierarchy, dominated
by the Ordinators (the Temple's elite guard and inquisitors), will
do anything to prevent the Dissident Priests from attacking the
authority of the cult. By associating with the Dissident Priests,
you becomes the target of Ordinator attacks.

As
you dig deeper into the mysteries of the Nerevarine and the Sixth
House, you are attacked by dark dreams, demented cultists, and fanatic
assassins sent by Dagoth Ur and the Sixth House. When you finally
locate and destroy a Sixth House base, you contract the terrible
corprus disease, a supernatural weapon of Sixth House cultists.
But when, with the help of an ageless Telvanni wizard, you are miraculously
cured, that cure ironically fulfills one of the prophecies of the
Nerevarine's reincarnation.

The recall of the Spymaster to the Imperial City leaves you without
a patron and guide. You must thereafter rely on two native Dunmer
for guidance: the Dissident Priest Mehra Milo, a friend and informant
of the Spymaster, and Nibani Maesa, an Ashlander wise woman, seer,
and leader of the Cult of the Incarnate. However, after you rescue
Mehra Milo from the Ordinators who have imprisoned her in the Ministry
of Truth, and receive from her the Lost Prophecies, you have everything
you need to prove that you are indeed the prophesied Nerevarine.

To
assume your identity as the prophesied Incarnate, you must provide
proof to the Cult of the Nerevarine. First you deliver the Lost
Prophecies recovered from the Dissident Priests to Nibani Maesa.
Then you perform a quest for the Warrior-Protector of the Cult,
Sul-Matuul, retrieving tokens from a subterranean Sixth House base.

A satisfied Sul-Matuul then reveals the secret location of the
Cavern of the Incarnate, where you travel and encounter the Daedra
Lord Azura, who confirms your status as the Incarnate, and gives
you a token so that all Dunmer shall recognize you -- the Moon-and-Star
Ring of Nerevar, an ancient magical treasure long believed lost,
and known from legend to instantly kill any who wear it but Nerevar
himself. Azura then interprets the Incarnate's prophecies, foretelling
the next stages of the Incarnate's quest: to be acknowledged as
war leader by each of the three Great Houses and by all four Ashlander
tribes, and to reconcile the warring factions of the Tribunal Temple.

As
described in the Lost Prophecies, the second stage of the Incarnate's
main quest is to be named war leader of the four Ashlander tribes
(the "Nerevarine") and war leader of the three Great Houses
(the "Hortator"). When you have been named both Nerevarine
and Hortator, you are invited to an interview with the Archcanon
of the Tribunal Temple, Tholer Saryoni, and then with the God-Hero
Lord Vivec. Vivec admits that he and the Tribunal have failed, and
asks you to save Morrowind from Dagoth Ur.

The God-Hero Lord Vivec tells you that three great artifacts must
be used to unmake Dagoth Ur and the Sixth House. Vivec gives you
the first -- Wraithguard -- and tells you that the other two, Sunder
and Keening, must be recovered from Sixth House citadels within
Red Mountain's crater and defended by Dagoth Ur's lieutenants, the
Ash Vampires. When you have all three artifacts, you must descend
into Dagoth Ur's own citadel and use the artifacts to destroy the
enchantments that give him his supernatural powers. With the enchantments
destroyed, Dagoth Ur and all his minions are unmade, and the blight
removed from Morrowind.